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The interacting effects of religion and birthplace on the labour market outcomes of Asian immigrants in Australia

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Abstract

Immigration from a diverse range of source countries has been instrumental in increasing the diversity of religions among Australia’s population. Immigrants’ religious adherences may affect their labour market outcomes and integration into the host society more broadly by influencing their accumulation of human capital, work and family-related attitudes and values, social networks, and experiences of discrimination. Such effects of religion may differ between immigrants from different countries of origin. This paper examines the effects of religion and birthplace on unemployment, labour force participation and occupational status using 2016 Australian Census data, paying particular attention to the largest Asian immigrant groups. The results show that religion has stronger effects on labour force participation for females than for males. Christians tend to have higher employment and occupational status than Muslims and Buddhists. The results show the variations in labour force participation and occupational status between people with different religions are generally wider within immigrant groups than among the Australia-born, and the pattern of variation differs between Asian country of birth groups. The study demonstrates the importance of religion to the delineation of the heterogenous paths of economic integration of immigrant populations.

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Notes

  1. Christian White British, Christian White Irish, Christian Black Caribbean, Christian Black African, Other White British, Muslim Indian, Muslim Pakistani, Muslim Bangladeshi, Muslim White, Muslim Black, Jews White British, Hindu Indian, Sikh Indian and No Religion White British.

  2. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

  3. For example, occupations which are forbidden according to the Quran, such as those relating to gambling or betting, financial services which generate interest, or jobs in which haram food products such as pork or alcohol are made or sold (Suthasasna, 1984).

  4. The proportion of the Sri Lanka-born Hindus who arrived as Humanitarian migrants is considerably larger than the proportions of Sri Lankan Buddhists and Sri Lanka-born Christians who did so (ABS, 2018). Sri Lankan Tamils (who are mainly Hindu) faced persecution and conflict during the 26-year civil war and fled to Australia and other migrant-receiving countries (Betts and Higgins, 2017).

  5. Includes Medical Practitioners (not further defined), General Practitioners and Resident Medical Officers, Anesthetists, Specialist Physicians, Psychiatrists, Surgeons and Other Medical Practitioners.

  6. At the 1-digit code level, the AUSEI06 scores are as follows: Professionals (81.6), Managers (58.1), Technicians and Trades Workers (35.9), Community and Personal Service Workers (41.7), Clerical and Administrative Workers (45.6), Sales Workers (34.8), Machinery Operators and Drivers (21.0) and Labourers (18.5).

  7. The wording of the census question is “What is the person’s religion?” Answering the question is optional. See Fig. 1 for non-response percentages.

  8. For the Australia-born, the leading subcategory for ‘Other religions’ is Judaism. For the China-born (including Hong Kong), Indonesia-born and Malaysia-born, it is Chinese Religions (primarily, Taoism); for India-born the largest numbers are for Jainism and Zorastrianism; for Philippines-born primarily Baha’i; and for Vietnam-born primarily Caodaism and Chinese religions (Ancestor Veneration and Taoism). Numbers with ‘Other’ religions are very small for the Sri Lanka-born and the South Korea-born.

  9. ‘Asia’ is defined by the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (ABS, 2016) which includes South-East Asia, North-East Asia and Southern and Central Asia, but excludes the countries of the Middle East, which are culturally, socially and economically dissimilar.

  10. Includes Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong.

  11. The most numerous countries of birth within the Other Asia birthplace group are; Thailand-born, Pakistan-born, Singapore-born, and Nepal-born (ABS, 2017).

  12. The Other Overseas-born are mainly from mostly English-speaking countries and European countries. The most numerous countries of birth are; England-born, New Zealand-born, Italy-born and South Africa-born (ABS, 2017).

  13. Refers to ‘non-school qualification’ in the 2016 Australian Census.

  14. The microdata do not specify visa category on arrival.

  15. The Pakistan-born are male-dominated and predominantly Muslim, whilst the Thailand-born are female-dominated and predominantly Buddhist.

  16. The vast majority of Australia-born Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs have one or both parents born overseas (ABS, 2017).

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    Sheruni De Alwis

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Appendices

Appendix 1

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Table 4 Definitions of explanatory variables used in regression analyses of labour force status and occupational status in Australia, 2016
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Appendix 2

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Table 5 Percentage distributions of variables used in multinomial logistic regression analysis of labour force status (full sample) and variables used in multiple linear regression analysis of occupational status (employed only)
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De Alwis, S., Parr, N. & Guo, F. The interacting effects of religion and birthplace on the labour market outcomes of Asian immigrants in Australia. J Pop Research 39, 157–199 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-021-09278-w

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